All posts tagged LWRC M6A3

Too much to think about or lots to think about ?

After watching many Youtube videos about what is coming out in 2012 I was mostly bored out of my skull trying to understand why I would bother spending another $2000 for an AR15 that is slightly different than what I already own.   Sure there are improvements but spending $2000 on something that is 5% more of a gun than an AR15 that you already own doesn’t justify the cost.   I am a big proponent to upgrading what you have.   There was a really good article in Swat magazine years ago about improving what you already own and the small things you can do to improve your AR15.   Replace extractor springs, stake screws, lube your gun right and you’ve just improved your gun for less than $150.

If you are looking to make your Carbine a firearm that you can rely on, make sure you don’t over think the configuration and setup.   I understand why people spend $2000 on AR15 upper receivers that have folding front and rear sights, but if you have folding front sights keep in mind that you have one more step to getting your firearm up and running and that is something to seriously think about.   I am a firm believer that people need to adapt to weapons and gear and not always expect to adapt the firearm to them.  Fixed front sights have been around for a long time and I don’t think changing that another thing that needs to be folded or screwed on is worth the liability.

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Uppers and Lowers and endless modifications, what’s the answer?

The simple answer is get more guns.   The real problem I see with many people that tinker too much with firearms is that they can really mess stuff up.  I remember seeing this with guys that overly modified their 1911s and put springs in the guns that they should not have and they ended up with an accurate POS.   I don’t know how many times i’ve say behind a guy on the firing line that continuously informed me that his firearm was reliable but I’d watch them clear malfunctions all day and they would just blame the ammunition.

In my opinion, that is like watching a guy put tires on a car that are  not the same size and saying the only reason he crashed the car was because when he made the wide turn the tires that were not uniform made him loose control.   Well, stop messing around so much with your AR15 lower receivers and your AR15 upper receivers and make sure that once you get something that is reliable, stop screwing around with triggers and springs.   You are better off with multiple firearms that do different things than trying to push a firearm to do everything.  There is a trade off between reliability and accuracy and rarely does a firearm do both for very long.

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Remember when everyone and an AR15A2?

Remember how long ago it was when an AR15 meant the long 20inch barrel and it was virtually impossible to find an M4 style firearm.   AR15 firearms have come a long way, both the upper receivers and the lowers.   Trying to find a firearm now that does not have staked parts or is not chrome plated is getting harder and harder.   Even the machining on bolt carriers has improved to the point that Direct Impingement firearms are 10xs more reliable than before.  All you have to do is pop the bolt carriers out of the guns and you can feel the difference.

Even the average AR15 now is a minute of angle firearm and can still run like a military rifle.   Barrel technology on your average AR15 upper receivers has doubled and tripled.   I have an LWRC M6A1 rifle that supposedly has a barrel life of about 7500rds but the newer ones are close to 20,000rds.   The bolt carrier group is a  one piece unit and there has been absolutely zero broken parts on it.   Hopefully the only things that will eventually where out anytime soon are the extractor and springs.  It’s always wise to keep some of the basic spare parts around no matter what AR15 you own.

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Range Report on M4 Carbine

I’ve had an LWRC Carbine for several years now and it has served me well.   I’m not going to brag about  how great this thing runs compared to other firearms, all I’m going to say is that this was the gun I really learned about gunsmithing with.   I recently stripped the gun down to do a repair after the stock came loose and i lost the rear take down pin detent and spring.   I was shooting and noticed that my M4 Carbine rifle stock was starting to unwind and I was a little surprised.  I thought I broke the stock for a moment and then I realized that it was just lose.  I didn’t have a stock tool with me so i just hand tightened it, but then I noticed the rear take down pin was falling out.

Well, I wasn’t in a gunfight, but I did learn that more than just an optic or a magazine can fail you, you’re gun may just fall apart if you don’t pay attention to it.   While I took the gun apart to analyze it a little more I notice that the fore grip that I was using was cracked, it had not broken off on me, but man, did it look like it was close to snapping, there are a great many things to lock down and tighten, spending $1800 on LWRC uppers, doesn’t mean the gun isn’t allowed to have an operator induced failure of some sort or sheer neglect.   Everything that can come loose needs to be checked.

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Getting bored with your AR15?

It wasn’t until the later 1990’s that the M4 carbine really took hold in the civilian market.   We usually only saw the AR15 A2 on the firing line and that was about it.   Then we started to see the heavy barrels and then the light barrels.   In the last 6yrs there have been so many calibers and manufacturers making the AR15 firearms that I have completely given up on keeping track of them.   There are so many custom AR15 models that it’s really more like asking someone what kind of Legos do they like to build.

I am going to be taking the dive into the AR15 market again very soon.   I recently got to fire a Ruger 556 and was really amazed that Ruger of all people would step into the market, even more so than Smith & Wesson have the guts to make a 5.45×39 AR15 upper receivers.   CMMG makes a darn good version for the money and we’ve sold a ton of those to people that didn’t want to spend $1800 on another firearm.    Once again, the beauty of the AR15 design is that you can put any type of AR15 upper on them and only have a minimal amount of gunsmithing to do if something doesn’t fit quite right.

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Got to fire a REPR today!

Today I attended an event at a local gun club where several industry big dogs came out and brought their firearms.    I shot a Ruger LCP for the first time and the Ruger 556.    I have to say that I am blown away by the number of high quality AR15 rifles there are out there and it’s amazing to see all of the piston driven guns being accepted by the public.   The AR15 debate seems to never be put to rest but there are more reason to have a piston in the gun than not.

The real event of the day was firing an LWRC REPR.   I was never impressed with the AR10 because it seemed to have all of the same liabilities that the AR15 had plus it was really hard to find decent magazines for.   There are now PMAGs for the .308, but this gun was not like an AR15.   LWRC uppers may make a gun look like a regular AR15, but the REPR functions more like an FAL.   The gun was surpressed but I did feel a lot of gas coming back at me.  The recoil was nothing and the gun felt about 2lbs lighter than my FAL.

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